Flow Battery Gets Connected to California Grid

EnerVault’s grid-scale, iron-chromium redox flow battery has been activated in Turlock, Calif. Interconnected to the distribution grid, EnerVault Turlock is co-located with a dual-axis tracking solar photovoltaic system in an almond orchard in California’s Central Valley.

EnerVault designed and manufactured the long-duration, grid-scale energy storage system in Silicon Valley with a combination of private funding and research and development grants from the DOE and the Energy Commission.

EnerVault’s technology stores energy in tanks of electrolytes. “The fluid is then pumped through the battery’s cells when power is needed,” according to SFGate.

Enervault’s flow batteries blend iron and chromium into the water inside its tanks – materials that are safe as well as cheap, says the company.